East Side developers hope to lure IU med school, 'conference hotel' to The Promenade

Martin confirms conference hotel is planned

EVANSVILLE - Developers of the The Promenade, a mixed-use project planned on Evansville's East Side, have a grand vision for the 215 acres.

They hope to lure the Indiana University of School of Medicine, which also is considering Downtown and other sites for its Evansville facility. They also have designs on what's being called "a conference hotel," plus a walkable entertainment district and residences.

The empty land is bordered by Burkhardt Road, Columbia Street, Oak Grove Road and Interstate 164. Specific details aren't being released yet due to the all the moving parts involved, said Steve Martin, managing member of developer Hirsch Martin LLC, though he confirmed a conference hotel is in the mix.

IU officials said in June that the location for the medical school facility won't be revealed until December.

"We've got five different groups working on five different things," Martin said.

Confirmation that a conference hotel is being planned for the East Side site comes as Evansville government leaders are in the final stages of talks with a Branson, Mo., company about a Doubletree by Hilton hotel Downtown, adjacent to The Centre and the Ford Center.

That project is to have both private and public funding. It is to include apartments, businesses and infrastructure in addition to the hotel. A large part of the Doubletree's business would come from conventions at The Centre, a 280,000-square-foot meeting space owned by Vanderburgh County government, and events at the city-owned, 10,000-seat Ford Center.

The Centre's convention bookings have nose-dived in recent years because of the absence of a nearby hotel, and the facility has run six-figure annual deficits.

City government leaders also have said Downtown would be their first preference for the IU medical campus.

Mayor Lloyd Winnecke's office declined to comment when asked about the prospect of an East Side competitor for The Centre and the Doubletree Hotel under discussion.

Bob Warren, director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, said "nothing's been announced" officially about the scope of the East Side development, and in his view, Downtown should remain the focal point of Evansville's efforts to regain convention business.

Martin said planning for The Promenade project started in 2007, but the national economic downturn stalled the process.

Speculation that The Promenade project could include a facility capable of hosting conventions started when Dunn Hospitality Group Chairman and CEO John Dunn told television station 14WFIE-NBC in June that he was "about to embark on the largest hospitality project in the history of the company."

Dunn could not be reached for comment. He was among a group of local hotel owners who earlier this year voiced opposition to major public participation in a Downtown hotel project.

Martin said The Promenade's development team is "really focused" on luring the IU medical facility. He said the East Side is ideal because of its accessibility to the region, and that plans for the conference hotel and entertainment district are moving forward "regardless of what goes on Downtown."

Martin, asked about the prospect of competition between Downtown and the East Side, said, "In the private sector, we have to compete all the time. That's how we live."